Fire and Smoke ((Infamous x The Last of Us))
by DarkWolf Publications
Summary: Hey, I'm Raven. Just a sixteen year-old conduit, trying to screw over the D.U.P., have fun and not get bitten by a clicker or mauled by a bloater. It helps that I've teamed up with Delsin, Ellie, and other fun people. The Last of Us and inFamous 3. Rated M, for violence, Swearing, and ((maybe?)) Sexual Content. Comments, constructive criticism and favs appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Crack in the Wall

Well, my day started out alright. You know, daily grind. Wake up, got to school, suffer through classes, hit the tutoring session, leave, go home, eat, do homework. Boring shit, I know. Well, I blame myself for not being awesome enough. "This is some crap," I said, kicking my backpack for no good reason. Looking in the mirrors, I stared back at myself. _Jesus, you could try growing more._ At 5'9, I was hoping to be just a little taller, _And you could try combing that tangled mane you like to call hair._ I shook my head, clearing the long, inky-black hair that fell into my green eyes far too often. _Green eyes, a genetic anomaly. Well, it sure creeps the hell out of some people, which is a plus._ My rumpled gray hoodie and faded black jeans made me look pretty average, and those new Vans just made me look even more like everyone else. _Damn, I really am boring. I can't even get a decent tan._ Looking at my pale skin, I winced. I had tried to tan, once. I had an awful sunburn for a week. _Fuck that._ And then, looking closer at the mirror, I did a double take. _Is that a crack in my wall?_ I turned, and slowly approached it, not touching it. _I've watched enough Doctor Who to know how that's gonna go down._ Curious, I lobbed a ball of paper at it. It bounced off, firmly anchored in my reality. _Of course, it needs to touch me. Well, if I'm gonna get launched between realities, I'm taking some weapons._ I grabbed my M1911 from the closet, silently thanking my parents for being gun enthusiasts, and loaded about three-twelve round clips. _Murika._ Shoving the clips into my jeans, and feeling really stupid, I reached out to touch the crack. Nothing happened. _See, that's only in tv shows-_ Light shot from the crack, and latched onto me. "What the-" I was yanked into the crack, and of course I passed out. _Not my day, is it?_

I woke up to the sounds of screaming. Rubbing my eyes, and sitting up, I felt for my gun, which was gone. _Because nothing's ever easy, right? Fuck._ I tried out my legs, and finding that I could move, headed to the nearest window. What I saw blew my mind, literally. People, running in droves, heading away from the center of wherever we were. but that wasn't what surprised me, nope. What surprised me was the people screaming "Bioterrorist" and entire squads of swat-looking guys with the letters D.U.P emblazoned on their backs. They were all firing at what looked like some trails of smoke, but I knew better. _Hell yeah, Delsin Rowe!_ I had played inFamous 3, and totally knew what was going down. _Awesome! Oh, dude, I should totally help!_ I looked around, for a weapon of any kind. I saw my pistol a few feet away. Running over and scooping it up, I headed to the streets, ready to kill me some D.U.P. _These bastards had it coming, anyways._ Keeping to the alleys, and hoping Delsin would leave me some, I snuck my way over, laughing at the fact that the bad guys had no idea what was going to hit them. Spriting now, I rushed out of the alley, firing as I ran, flashing back to my dad's lessons. _You're going to make a kickass SEAL one day, Vince. It's in the family._ And it had been, for four generations. My dad didn't see any harm in starting basic a little early. _And I wonder why I never have any free time._ The first few rounds thumped into a dude's skull, and blood sprayed up. I laughed, I was loving it. _I'm in a friggin' video game!_ Sliding like it was Mirror's Edge, I picked up the fallen's assault rifle and flipped the switch to three round burst, after some consideration. Squeezing the trigger, I let off burst after burst, watching the idiots fall like flies. They started to catch on, and so I ended up pinned behind a truck, swapping magazines with my sweaty palms. _I love this, so much._ I peeked around the corner and laid down some suppressive fire, allowing Delsin to completely murder the incompetent fools. "YEAH! SEATTLE BELONGS TO US!" Abandoning all common sense in the heat of the moment, I rushed from behind the cars, firing wildly, laughing as Delsin beat down the last guy with his chains. "Hell yeah!" I dropped the weapon, and ran over. "Dude, that was freaking awesome!"

He stepped away. "Whoa, you're not gonna shoot me, right?"

"Are you kidding?" I stuck out my hand, rather proudly. "Nice to meet you."

Delsin still looked a bit unsure. "Are you a conduit?"

"Hell if I know. I just saw you out there, and wanted to lend a hand. Come on dude, don't leave me hanging." I raised an eyebrow.

Shrugging, he slapped me five, and I instantly felt something tingly flow throughout my entire body.

Delsin's eyes widened. "Aw yeah, you're a conduit alright." Power Began to flow between us, and the tingling felt like needles now. I began to sweat, feeling nauseous right about now. Delsin saw my expression and laughed. "No worries man, I'll take you to the safehouse after you pass out."

"Pass out-" The pain spiked in a moment of absolute agony, and I screamed, blacking out. I vaguely was aware of hitting the ground, then nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Smoke and Shadows

The first thing I heard when I came to was a news report about a "Bioterrorist" and an "Unknown fighter". The newsperson was urging the public to report any sightings of either Delsin or I, so I figured we had really wrecked the D.U.P's shit.

Groaning, I pulled myself up into a sitting position, vaguely away of a dull throbbing in the back of my head.

"Welcome back, dude. Delsin laughed when he saw the news report. "Awesome, Right?"

"Yeah man. But I don't feel so good." I looked around and everything seemed sort of… shadowy.

Delsin laughed. "That's your powers kicking in. Why don't we go see what you can do?" He flashed out of the room, leaving the smell of smoke behind.I got to my feet, wobbling a little bit, my hands grasping the couch. That's when I realized they were cloaked in shadows, which flowed from my hands like fog from dry ice.

"Come on, get out here!"

Rolling my eyes, I stumbled down the hallway. "Screw you, I'm still in pain."

"Well, too bad." He flashed down the hallway again, and I tried to copy him. Instead of splitting into flame and ashes, I felt my body whoosh down the hallway, and bam, I was there, feeling like I was straight out of the movie jumper. Delsin laughed again, and slapped me on the back. "Damn dude, that was sick. You looked like a shadow, coming down that hall. but it was smoky too, and stuff." He flashed down the hallway, and once again I followed him, feeling more confident in my powers. We had reached what looked like a makeshift training room, with stacked barrels and targets painted on them.

"Let's see what you got." Delsin raised his hand, and a bolt of ash and flame flew across the room and struck the middle of the target. "Beat that."

_Okay, I can do this. Just gotta channel my inner McGrath._ Summoning all the knowledge of basic attacks from the infamous games, I formed a ball of shadow energy and let it fly. It flew straight, and knocked over the barrels with a resounding crash.

Delsin whistled. "Okay, not bad. What else you got?"

"Let's see." I cycled through attacks I knew about, finding I could do rockets, blasts, dashes, grenades, jumps and I could even trap things in shadows, then blow them up.

"Sweet. We're gonna raise hell." Delsin fistbumped me. "But, you're gonna need a weapon. You probably know mine." He jingled the chains on his wrists. "Come on, pick one." He led me to a room which had some interesting things hanging on the wall, including-

"No way." I picked up Cole's amp, reverently. "Where'd you get this?"

"Dunno, some dude mailed it to me. It just showed up. Why?"

I put it back on the wall. _It doesn't feel right, taking his weapon._ "Nothing, nothing." I looked around the room, trying everything from pipes to fire axes. Then I saw something, sitting in the corner. "Dude, what is that?" I walked over, my eyes transfixed.

"Oh, that?" Delsin asked. "Dude, that's an old sickle. I mean, like old as in good, not bad."

I picked it up. "Seems freaking awesome." I took a few swings at the practice dummy, and carved him up pretty nicely.

"Here's a second one, and a belt for holding them." Delsin tossed me the mentioned items, and I practiced sheathing and drawing them. "I don't know where we get half this stuff from."

"Trust me dude, this is sweet. I can shadow rush 'em, and then boom, they're all sliced up." i demonstrated on the dummy, and Delsin clapped.

"Good job dude, we're gonna make an awesome team…" He trailed off.

"What's the matter?" I looked over, following his line of sight.

"Nothing, just there didn't use to be a crack in the wall."

_Oh no, not another one. Shit!_ "Just don't touch it, dude," I warned, just as the crack started pulsing and glowing.

"What is it?" He asked, a little entranced by the light.

"Probably some fracture in spacetime or something, look, just don't-" A brilliant arc of energy lashed out, knocking us both backwards. I saw someone tumble out, as I shielded my eyes. _Great, who could it possibly be?_ As the light faded, and my eyes began to focus, I shook my head. _This is… No way. No freaking way._ The light vanished completely, leaving me to stare in wonder. _That's Ellie. That's the freaking Ellie._ You guys probably get my enthusiasm, I hope. I mean, if you've ever played The Last of Us, you know. It was that Ellie, that same Ellie, who just _happened_ to touch a crack and end up here.

"Dude, it's a girl?" Delsin was totally confused.

"Not just any girl, man. Look, we gotta take her weapons. When she wakes up she might try to kill us."  
Delsin nodded, and began to take weapons off her. "Well, she's no conduit, but damn, dude. She's got some weapons for a kid." He dangled her revolver, and examined her knife.

"Hey, she's fourteen. Only two years younger than me, man. Not a kid." _And she's hot._ I hoped my shadows would cover up my blush.

"Whatever, dude. Holy crap, she's got a sawed-off." Delsin laughed, and spun it on his finger.

"DUDE!" I snatched it from him, and removed the shells which I knew were in there. "It's loaded, genius."

He shrugged, not caring. "Hey, I heal."

I shrugged back. "Who says I do?"

"Oh, you do, man, You caught a bullet after you passed out."

"Are you kidding me?" I ran my hands through my hair. "I could have died!"

He rolled his eyes. "It's a dangerous business." And that was when I realized that this wasn't a game. There was no saving, no restarting, no endless level tries. _It's all real. Oh, shit._ I tried not to throw up, and eventually we had disarmed Ellie entirely, which was a feat in it's own.

"Should we handcuff her to something?"

I shook my head. "No, just be ready for a punch or a kick. And lots of swearing."

"Do you know her or something?"

"Ah, sort of." I didn't really want to explain that they were both from video games I loved to play. _That might make things awkward. A bit._

She stirred, regaining consciousness.

"Here we go." Delsin grinned, a little crazily.

Ellie snapped up. "Where the fuck am I?" Her head whipped around, checking out the warehouse.

"Language, jeez." Delsin said, albeit mockingly.

She turned on him. "What the hell did you do with Joel? I swear, if you hurt him-"

"Whoa, relax. I don't know any Joel." Delsin put his hands up. "We might've saved your life."

Hearing the "we" part, Ellie turned on me, a fire in her eyes. "You let me out of here or I'll kill both of you."

Delsin laughed, and held a hand of flame out. "Good luck."

"The hell is that?!" She snarled.

"He's… Well, we're conduits." I briefly explained. "And you just jumped dimensions, I think." Using my Whovian knowledge, I explained precisely what happened. "I came through a crack too." I pointed at the wall, where she came from. "Look." The crack was sealing itself, and eventually it faded.

"Well, send me back. I was in the middle of something."

"It doesn't work like that. We have to find another crack." I rubbed my forehead. "Welcome to Seattle, Washington. There's no plague, no Infected."

Delsin snorted. "But there is the D.U.P."

Ellie looked at him like he was crazy. "What?"

I interceded, "They want to capture and kill people like us." I focused, and smoky shadows gathered in my hand, dispersing when I relaxed.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Whoop-de-do. I hop into a new dimension", she put the word in air quotes, "and I get stuck with fireflies."

"Fireflies?" Delsin's hand flamed up again. "I guess, maybe."

"No, they're the resistance movement in her world."

His eyes brightened. "Oh, well then yeah. Sort of."

Ellie snorted. "Then I'm out. Fireflies are nothing but trouble."

"Who said you could leave?" Delsin frowned and twirled his chain. "You've seen us, you know where we are." You could report us, shut us down. Hell no." He moved forward, twirling his chains

"Fuck you!" Ellie made a dive for the knife, but I grabbed the back of her collar, and hauled her back, "Everyone calm the fuck down!" Delsin backed off, and I was thankful that a fight didn't start. "Fucking shit, two seconds and you guys are trying to kill each other, fuck!" I tossed Ellie across the room, a little roughly.

She rolled across the floor, and skidded into a wall. "Fuck you, asshole! She wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth, and I felt a little bad, but shook my head. "Look, you have to calm down. We're not getting anywhere by fighting." I offered her a hand, and she reluctantly took it.

"You're still an asshole."

I rolled my eyes. "You're probably right. Delsin, no killing her."

"What about locking her up?"

"No." I shot him a glare, then turned to Ellie. "If I give you your stuff back, will you promise not to shoot us? It's more of an inconvenience than anything." _Delsin did say I took a bullet and healed. Hopefully he was right._

Ellie looked at me with narrowed eyes. "Inconvenience? What the hell are you two?"

"Conduits." Deslin said, from behind me.

"Which are?"

I rubbed my forehead, exasperated. "Look, we have powers. That's about all you need to know, or I'm going to tell you. You'll have to trust us."

"And why should I trust you?"

"Do you want your stuff back?" After I said that, she paused, thinking about it, I could tell. Eventually, she caved in.

"Fine. I'll trust you." She put out her hands, "Now give me my stuff."

Delsin glanced at me, and I nodded. _Do it._ We began picking up the various items, and handing them to her. As she put them away, I realized just how many weapons she carried. _Note to self: Do not get on her bad side._ I noticed Delsin frown as I handed her the sawed-off, and I simply rolled my emerald eyes, and turned back to Ellie. "Better?"

"Better." She nodded, grateful that I was sticking up for her. "Now send me back."

I facepalmed, and explained, _again_, that we couldn't send her back. She didn't quite believe me, I could tell, but she really didn't have a choice.

"Great. So now I'm stuck with you two losers."  
"I am not a loser. I have a job," Delsin pointed out, proudly flipping Ellie off.

"You've got to be joking. Your "job" is killing innocent people."

"Innocent? they torture people like me!"

I looked between the two of them, slightly on Ellie's side, but only because she was hotter then Delsin. "Guys, look. Let's just go kill something, and we'll figure it out later."

"You mean someone?" Ellie challenged.

"Hell yeah, bro. I'll be at the old warehouse if you need me." Delsin flashed away.

"Pfft." Ellie headed to the door. "I'm going to try and find someone who's not entirely crazy."

I watched her walk all the way to the door, only feeling slightly creepy. _She's around my age than if Delsin was checking her out._ Searching for some spraypaint, and grabbing a can of emerald green to match my eyes, I left, figuring I could call Delsin later ((I had him on speed dial)), and wanting to check out the city. I took the paint because I felt like either messing up some rich prick's car or tagging the side of a high-end building, albeit sloppily. As I left, I shoved the paint in my jansport bag, walking into the streets of the D.U.P. controlled Seattle. _Damn, I hope I find something to do._

Not too much later, I was covering a white Lexus in green paint, laughing my ass off. _Hell yeah. Now this is what life's about. Pissing off rich people._ Taking my scythes from my belt, I slashed each tire, and then forced off each shiny, chromed hubcap, using what seemed to be enhanced strength. _I wonder how much stronger I really am?_ I gave the car a good kick, and took off running, merging with the shadows in the alley, waiting for an idiot to run out because of the car alarm. After a little while, a balding, pudgy man exited the building, and stared at his ruined car in shock. I tried not to laugh, but inside I was cackling. Instead of sinking to his knees, he began screaming at the unfortunate woman next to him, who was taken aback. He gesticulated wildly, and I sighed. _I'm gonna have to knock him out before he hits her._ Leaving the shadows, and absorbing any runaway energy, I calmly walked over. "What seems to be the problem?"

He sputtered and blustered, his face red. "This woman, this… this…commoner! Has had the audacity to vandalize my property!"

"Why do you think that? Because she's wearing a hoodie?" I crossed my arms, unaware that my green eyes flashed beneath my hood.

"She was the only one in the vicinity of my vehicle! She has destroyed my mode of transportation! How now am I supposed to feed myself?"

"Hey man, I didn't mess with your car." Blue hair with platinum tips peeked out from under the hoodie, and purple eyes stared defiantly at the poor guy whose car I had ruined. _I swear she has an authentic tan, but we're in Seattle. How?_

"You dare to tell me a falsehood?!"

I was starting to get bored. _And when I get bored… things get crazy. _ I rolled my eyes at the chick, and laughed when she made a face at the man, who nearly went into an epileptic fit.

I tapped the guy on the shoulder. "Hey buddy." He turned and I emptied the contents of my spray can onto his designer shirt, streaking it bright green. His eyes widened, and I grabbed his forehead, acting on instinct, and began to pull shadow energy from his head. He collapsed, and the girl just laughed. "You're a "Bioterrorist" vandal? Jeez, are you trying to get killed?"

"Maybe." I dropped the empty can on the ground, and blasted it, reducing the can to shadows. "But I also might be just messing with people."

She smiled, her purple eyes glinting. "You'd have to be some kind of crazy… I like crazy." She kicked the guy. "We should hang."

"Considering the fact-" I was cut off by the sound of sirens. "Is that…?"

She nodded. "Probably." A truck careened around the corner, and I let a shadow rocket fly right into it, exploding and disintegrating about three fourths of the truck. As it slid towards us, I grabbed the girl and flashed away, into the shadows of the alley. Once I reconstituted us, she laughed even harder. "That was SICK!" She held out her hand, and I slapped her five.

"My name's Angel."

"My name's…" _I don't want to give out my real name. Hmmmm. My tag is RVN._ "Raven," I decided. _New place, new name, right?_

Angel just looked skeptical. "That's a girl's name."

"Fuck you."

Hearing this, she shook her hips at me. "You wish."

"I do, actually."

"Well, you're honest." She scribbled something on a piece of paper, and held it out. "My number. In case you ever get bored, or wanna go tag some stuff."

I slammed my thumb rapidly onto my iPhone, which somehow had service. "Thanks. Now, I think I hear more police. I'm gonna get out while I can." Waving, I flashed away, hopping from shadow to shadow, avoiding D.U.P. and police. My phone vibrated when I was closer to downtown, and I picked it up, talking as I walked.

"Hey bro, appreciate the service?" It was Delsin, _Who somehow has my number._

"Um, yeah. About that, why do I have it?"

"I got a hacker friend to hook it up. We've got the major towers broadcasting or signal on a lower wavelength, or some shit like that. Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where that chick went, do you?"

"Ellie? No, I don't actually. Why?"

"Uh, are you near a tv at all?"

I glanced at a storefront and walked over. On the news was a bunch of people running, and policemen shooting. I looked closer, and jerked back. "Oh no." _The infected. A few of them got through._ Fortunately, I saw them all go down.

"You still there, bro? What's your name, anyways?"

"Raven," I answered. "Now, where is this?" As soon as I asked, I heard panicked screams.

"Right where you are, judging by the screams."

I turned around, and saw a wave of people surging in my direction. "Right. You need to get here, now. Everyone who's bit is done for."

"Well, then. They're not going into ambulances." I glanced at the tv's and realized he was right.

"Okay, so the DUP are taking them? I guess we're all good then." _Besides, who knows if people can even be infected in this world?_

"Well, one or two did get taken to hospitals. Should we check 'em out?"

"Yeah, you check up on them. I'll see if I can find Ellie." I hung up, and hit the electronics store to "buy" a bluetooth earpiece. I say "buy" because I managed to steal one while chatting the cashier up about the latest consoles. After tearing it out and syncing it to my phone, I stuffed the charger in my pocket. _Now how the hell am I going to find Ellie?Maybe a grid search? Naw, Seattle's too big for that-_ Someone bumped into me, and I turned, to see Ellie.

"You again."

"Did you see this?" I pointed at the tv, and tried to ignore the tone of her voice. I saw her eyes grow.

"Infected." She barely whispered it.

"Yeah. Most have been quarantined, but a few got taken to a local hospital."

She turned to me. "Take me there, now."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Nothing to worry about

After some careful shadow-dashing towards the heart of Seattle, avoiding checkpoints and sticking to roofs, we made it inside the hospital. "Don't let go of my hand." I tugged Ellie from shadow to shadow. It's harder when you bring someone. We reached the rooms for the two infected, and crept inside the first. The poor victim was as white as a sheet, and he had no spores growing anywhere.

"He's immune? Did he bleed out?"

I shook my head at Ellie, his shoulder was stitched. "Shhh." Two doctors walked in, and began conversing. Eventually, I gleaned that he had died from a strange fungi, but hadn't reanimated. I let out a sigh, then clapped a hand over my mouth. The doctors didn't seem to notice, and I led Ellie back out of the hospital and into the streets before I let go of her hand. "See, we're fine. People don't turn, they straight up die." I sat down, resting on a brick wall. Being a shadow is tiring.

"How are we fine?" I pried open an eye, and looked Ellie up and down.

"It' just like a bullet in a bite. Nothing serious will come of this. Besides, did you see how little came through?"

"It's not that." She crossed her arms. "What if the person is contagious?"

"Then those doctors would have been dead. I know how it works in your world, Ellie. The spores are what infect people. Well, that guy was spore free. The fungus probably killed him because it was poisonous, or something. Look, let it be." I stood up, shakily. "You wanna get some Mickey D's? I'm starved."

"What's Mickey D's?" She stared at me.

I stared back. "McDonalds? Oh, right." I facepalmed. _Post-apocalyptic teenager. Right._ "Look, I'll pay."

She hesitantly agreed. "All right, but don't try anything."

"Like what?"

She just gave me a look. "Are we going or not?"

"So you just give them paper and they give you food? Awesome!" I watched as Ellie tore into her fifth double cheeseburger, hunched over her food. Of course, I'm not looking at the cheeseburger. I tried not to show it, but my eyes were almost locked on her chest. Almost. I kept scanning the area while trying to to look like I was scanning the area, looking for cops or dupes ((D.U.P. personnel)), but none seemed evident.

"It's not just paper. The paper is worth something."

"Worth how much?"

"Enough to feed you, apparently." I looked at the discarded wrappers, and finished off my chicken sandwich.

"You're gonna have to learn about currency." I stood up, and stretched, eyeing the door. "We should leave."

She shoved the wrappers in the bag and lobbed it into a trashcan on the way out. "Why are we leaving?"

"Because I don't have enough paper to feed you anymore, plus I don't like the idea of staying too long in one place." I held open the door, and she didn't give me any grief as we left.

"So, this paper. It's called money?"

I nodded, and held out a one dollar bill. "It is, but paper is also slang for money, so I think you're good." She took it, examined it, and held it up to the light. "This is a… one?"

I nodded. "Yep, there's ones, fives, tens, twenties, fifties and one hundreds." I spent the next couple of hours trying to explain the currency system, while shopping and showing her all the cool stuff, like iPhones and tv's. Eventually I had acquired a leather and cloth Jansport, a black shirt with a green raven on it, and a few cans of spraypaint.

"You gave them paper for all that?"

"Yeah, I had a couple hundred on me," I admitted. _Because I emptied out my savings before I touched the crack in my wall._

She shook her head. "This world is crazy."

"You found her!" Delsin jumped down off a roof, landing gently, his fire thrusters slowing the fall. "Where was she hiding out?"

Ellie stuck out her tongue, "I found him, actually. So you can shove-"

"Whoa, whoa." I stepped in between the two. "Calm the fuck down, Jesus."

"You tell her to calm down. I didn't do anything." Delsin chewed on a burrito. "So, are we gonna mess up the dupes today?"

"Probably. But I actually wanted to call someone."

"Dude, you got digits already? You move fast."

My eyes glinted again. "Why do you assume it's a girl-"

"Because I can tell, Rav."

"Girl?" Ellie demanded. "Who's this girl?"

_Why do I always get caught in the crossfire?_ "Look, I met Angel a little bit ago. She said she wanted to tag and stuff, and I want something to do."

"And stuff?" Delsin put stuff in air quotes, which really annoyed me.

"Ugh, I can't believe you!" Ellie spun on her heel and stalked away, which was totally confusing. _What the…?_

Delsin just laughed at me. "Better give Angel a ring, Ellie's done with you." he flashed away, leaving a trail of ash and smoke.

I just stood there, confused. What did I do? Sighing, I speed-dialed Angel.

"Hello?" She picked up after the first ring.

I grinned. "Remember me?"

"The bioterrorist with a deathwish?"

"That's me. Now, you said you'd be interesting in hanging and or tagging. Can I take you up on that offer?" I could hear the smile on the other side of the phone.

"Oh yeah, definitely. I've got nothing better to do. One condition, though. You've gotta get me out of school."

"School? It's a saturday."

"Yeah, I've got detention." She sighed, and I imagined her blowing air up into her bangs. "Stupid teachers."  
"You don't need to tell me. Look, send me the gps location or something."

"What are you, a spy?"

"Fine, text me the address."

"Will do, hot stuff." She hung up, and my phone vibrated a second later. I put the numbers and letters into google maps, and was on my way, planning to hitch a ride on a bus this time. _So it's a little mundane. At least I won't get caught._ Then I saw the thumb scanner, and pretended to answer my phone, then got out of line for the bus. _Shit, that was close._ Reprimanding myself, I hurried down a sidestreet, and melted into the shadows, zipping into the shadow of the bus. Waiting a few minutes, I managed to get off at the right stop, materializing in a shadowy overhang, and heading towards the school.

"Hey, you!"

I kept walking, pretending I didn't hear. _Shit shit shit._

Someone grabbed my shoulder and yanked me around. "Didn't I see you a couple stops ago?"

"Um, nah man. Musta been someone else." I tried using shadows to darken my face, and obscure it from his vision. Apparently it worked, because he let go.

"I'm part of the D.U.P., kid." He flashed a badge. "Don't play games with me."

"No, sir." _Why can't I just kill him right here?_ I almost stabbed him in the back with my sickle, right there, But Angel's counting on me. Shoot. I let him go, and texted Angel.

_Where r u?_ I waited for the telltale vibration of my phone.

_Library. Can u get me out?_

_Duh_, I texted back. Making my way across the street, I used my newfound agility to hop the fence into the school, and leap from shadow to shadow, making my way to the library. I slipped in through a window, and padded up to the main room, where I saw Angel and a few other students sitting, bored out of their minds, a single teacher keeping watch. I grabbed him from behind, slamming my hand on his mouth, and knocked him out, shadows leaking from his mouth when I let go.

"My hero." Angel strode over and fistbumped me. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

"Alright." I took her hand, and she wrapped my arm around her waist.

"Don't be shy, Raven." She laughed at my obvious embarrassment. "Seriously though, let's leave."

"What about the other people? Should I knock them out?"

"Oh, no, if anything, they'll say I was taken captive by a big, strong Conduit," She purred, tracing circles on my chest. Then I noticed the blank stares in the eyes of the students, and started to put two and two together. "You're a conduit, huh? What, do you have the power of suggestion?"

"Oh, you figured it out. Cool." She laughed, and I began jumping from shadow to shadow. "I don't have to pay for anything, so it's pretty sweet."

"I bet." Were you using it on me earlier?

She saw the question in my eyes, and shook her head. "Nope, believe me, you would know. You'd be unable to resist my command. It would be all you could think about..." She hugged herself tighter to me. "I've killed people like that." I could hear the sorrow and regret in her voice.

"Hey, Delsin and I kill people on a daily basis." _Not true, you've only been here for about a day._

She sniffed. "I'm sorry about my baggage. Let's go tag some shit."

I laughed, and pulled out some spraycans. "Aw hell yeah." I looked up at a brick wall. "Let's turn this into art."

I stood back, and admired out artwork. "Sweet." It was a huge portrait of myself and Angel, me holding my sickles, covered in shadows, green eyes blazing. Angel was leaning forward and blowing a flaming kiss, a heart trailing blue fire flying forward.

"Damn dude, we rock. And I look fucking hot." Angel mimicked the pose, and I laughed, Damn, she's right. She's absolutely sexy. "Modest, aren't you?"

"If you've got it, flaunt it," she winked, and walked away. "We should get something to eat, I'm starved." I followed, only half-sure she wasn't hitting on me.

"You're paying, right?"

"I don't pay for anything, Raven. Take note." She stopped a random person, "Give me all the money you've got." He complied, and went on his way, looking dazed and confused.

"Okay, that's sweet." _That's awesome!_

She smiled at me, and handed me the money. "Keep it, and buy me lunch, would you?"

"Oh, so I have to pay? That's fucked up." I shook my head, "Where you wanna go?"

"With you? Anywhere."

"Subtlety isn't your specialty, is it?" I held open the door to a steak house.

"Who says I'm interested?" She shook her head at me, and laughed. "You're how old?"

"Sixteen."

"Seventeen. So you're a sixteen-year old superhuman like me. You look dreamy and aren't afraid to speak your mind. Also, you seem to want to pay for everything." She slid into a booth, and I sat on the opposite side. "You love tagging and you're a great artist. You can pretty much get me out of detention whenever. So yeah, I'm interested. If only a little." she held her arms open wide, and I burst out laughing.

"So what you're saying is I'm dreamy? I've never been called dreamy before." I self-consciously ran a hand through my hair.

"You've been hanging out with all the wrong people." She put the menu down, and leaned forward, locking her eyes on mine. "You should spend more time with me."

I shook my head, trying to clear the fogginess. _Spend...More...time…_

"See, I told you that you'd know when I used my powers." The fog lifted and I examined her with some suspicion.

"What?" She shrugged, and waved her hand, "These aren't the droids you're looking for. Seriously though, I'm not going to force you to do anything."

"I hope not." I thought about saying more, but then the waiter came.

"What can I get your today?" I noticed the fake smile he was wearing, and decided to give the poor guy a break. "A medium-rare steak sandwich with fries, and a Shirley Temple."

"That One pound burger thing," Angel said, handing him her menu. "Oh, and fries and a coke."

"And that's all for you?"

I shrugged. "Yeah man, I think so." He left, and my phone buzzed. I tapped my new earpiece, and Delsin's voice assaulted my eardrums. "Dude, I need you! Where you at?"

"Um, the Steer and Ale."

"Dude, really? That's kinda far." As I turned down the volume, I heard bursts of gunfire.

"Delsin, are you-"

"Yeah, I am. get over here, would ya?"

I sighed, and hung up. "Look, I gotta go." I dropped a hundred on the table, and began to leave.

"Where?" I checked my phone, and rolled my eyes. "The other side of town."

"I'm coming." Angel stood up and shoved her hands into her hoodie. "Seriously though, you're taking me."

"No, I don't think so. You'd slow me down." I avoided eye contact, staring at the ground. _Not getting hypnotized again._

"Dude, I could make you take me." Angel stared at me, but I continued examining a crack in the tiles.

"Not if I don't look you in the eyes." She actually burst out laughing, and flipped her hood down.

"That's not how it works. Look up."

I slowly felt my muscles tense and my head began to raise against my will. Look up, look up… I glared directly into her purple eyes, unable to speak.

"You're taking-"

"Like hell." I stuffed my ears and flashed away, leaving behind a trail of shadows and some very confused customers. Great, now I gotta go save Delsin's ass and deal with Angel later. As I dashed across the city, I wondered if I could fly. _Maybe like Alec Mercer, at least._ Reaching the top of a skyscraper, I jumped off, and laughed as I glided, covering far more ground and losing altitude slowly, if at all. I tried turning upwards, and felt myself rocket into the sky. _Hell yes. I wonder why I didn't try this before?_ My phone vibrated. Oh, right. Delsin. I flew towards the coordinates he gave me, an inky black trail of smoke against the burnt-orange sky.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Punch Stuff

I swooped down, heading toward the sounds of chaos and explosions. _Because he couldn't sabotage them economically, right?_ I gathered shadows in my hands and let out a concentrated beam, which disintegrated most everything it touched, throwing cars around and killing people.

"You made it!" Delsin let off a rocket and blasted a truck to pieces. "Dude, where have you been?"

"Getting my head messed with." I began dashing around and executing dupes, slamming my scythes into and through armor, and feeling the blades break. _Shit._

"What, Angel do a number on ya?"

"Apparently she can control people." Grabbing a trooper by the helmet, I turned him and all his equipment into shadows, ignoring the screams.

"No way, that's sick! We should team." I saw him swing his chains in a flurry of motion, knocking enemies back in all directions.

"No, I don't think so." _I can't handle that right now._ Dissipating into shadows, I dragged a people and trucks down with me. When I resurfaced, they didn't. _Easy._ "Any more of them?"

"Naw dude, we cleaned up." Deslin wiped his hands on his pants, and laughed. "Call ya again when I need help."

"Really?" I sighed, and dropped my broken sickles. "Do you have any more of these?"

"Nope, but you can check the armory again." He flashed away, leaving my by myself. _Again. Where does he even go?_ Shaking my head, I took off, flying in the direction of the safehouse, making sure to land before I got there. _No point in attracting attention. Now what's gonna replace the sickles?_ I spent the next thirty minutes trying out different weapons. _I think I'll take these._ I sheathed twin combat knives, _Hopefully these'll last me longer._ I took some swing at the practice dummy, and satisfied with my performance, grabbed a soda from the fridge. _What to do…_ I sipped the mountain dew and wondered. My phone buzzed, and I answered.

"Hey, you just left me here." Angel sounded a little ticked off. _Better play it safe._

"You tried to fucking control me!" _Oh yeah, real safe._

"I was _showing _you how my power worked!" I heard her give a long, exasperated sigh. "Look, can we still hang?"

"Sure. Sorry about that. Can you try not to use your powers on me?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm at the mall."

"The mall?" I rolled my eyes. "What, are we going shopping?"

"Look, can you just come?"

"Fine." I searched around for cars in the garage, _Since I'm no parkour ninja like Delsin._ I briefly wondered where Ellie had gotten to, and shrugged off the thought. _She'll be fine._ Seeing no cars, I sighed, and began to walk. _I can't shadow hop, that's too dangerous. They're probably still on the lookout for me. And I can't take the bus, it has a scanner. And of course I have no car, so I'm walking._ I plodded along, cursing my luck.

Eventually I reached the mall, but my feet were sore and achey. _This had better be worth it… Oh, are you joking?_ I clearly saw the scanners in front of the mall. _Really?_ My phone buzzed, and I picked up. "Angel, there's mall scanners."

"I know, they just set them up. Probably had something to do with you killing all those D.U.P."

"Look, Delsin started it. Besides, you know they're in the wrong."

"So sabotage them subtly."

"If only." I scanned the entrances, which were all guarded. "Look, how do I get in? I can't shadow hop."

"Think something up, I don't know. Look, I'm going to be at the Forever 22." If I had been drinking I would have spit out my coffee. As it was, I laughed uncontrollably.

"What?"

"Nothing." _Forever 22? This world is hilarious._ I walked the perimeter of the whole building, and sunk into the shadows, carefully sliding into the shadow of a guard. _Okay, good so far._ I snuck under the door, right before he turned around, materializing in the back corridors in the mall. Sneaking around, I wormed my way into Forever 22, searching around the store, I found Angel, in the underwear section, _Of course_. Blushing, I made my way over. "Hey."

"This one, or this one?" She held up two different bras, and I found myself unable to speak, feeling my face burn up. Laughing, she slipped them back on the rack. "See, I don't even need my powers to get in your head." She held up some panties, and I looked away. "Really? Is this necessary?"

"Only because I love it when you blush. You can't seriously be embarrassed that badly." she gave me a searching look. "You are, I can't believe it."

"Well I hardly know you. Not to mention this isn't what I thought you meant by hanging out."

She fake pouted. "Come on, it's not that bad. If anything, I thought this would cheer you up. Look, I'm sorry for using my powers on you like that."

I nodded, "Apology accepted. Can we go do something-" In the corner of my eye, something glowed. I turned my head, and saw a crack in the wall, right on a support pillar. "Oh no." The light grew unbearably bright, and spat out a Clicker, who hesitated before falling onto the nearest screaming person.

"Shit, that's not good, is it?" Angel peeked over, as more Infected poured from the wall.

"You think?" I unsheathed my new combat knives. "You don't happen to have any fighting powers, do you?"

"You mean powers that let me smash things, like you?" She rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms over her substantial chest. "I can't be that perfect." A Lurker turned in our direction, and screamed.

"Please tell me you have a weapon-"

"Okay, I'm not an idiot." A switchblade came out of her pocket, and she stabbed the Lurker through the neck.

"Right. Okay, don't get bit, and don't die." I rushed at the Clicker and swung downward, my blade neatly puncturing its skull. "HEY, OVER HERE!" All the infected stopped and turned to me, screaming. _Oh, there's like thirteen. Oh, this was not smart._ As they rushed me, i found myself fighting for my life, blades swinging in every direction, slashing throats and stabbing chests. _At least they're not walkers. That would make this a lot harder._ I turned to the crack, which had more and more zombies pouring from it.

"We'll take it from here, citizen. Retreat to a safe distance." The dupes moved in, opening fire on the infected. _Impressive, they're actually cleaning up pretty well. Of course, that doesn't change anything._ I caught Angel's attention, and nodded towards an exit. We hopped out, and quickly left.

"Bad luck just follows you everywhere, doesn't it?" Angel leaned up against the wall, breathing heavy. I noticed the switchblade had disappeared.

"I don't ask it to. Not my fault if your dimensions are bleeding onto one another."

"What?" She looked me in the eyes, and I felt like I could drown in the purple pools.

_Keep it together._ "Nothing, it's more than I feel like explaining. We should leave, before they quarantine this area or something." Angel just shrugged, and we walked in silence, away from all the panic. Eventually, she spoke up.

"You don't have a car?"

"Uh, no. I just got here."

"Here as in Seattle?"

I realized what I had said, but it was too late. _Oh well. Might as well tell her._ "No, here as in this dimension. I touched a crack in my wall too, and bam, I'm here."

Her eyes widened an inch. "So you're an interdimensional superhuman?"

"Don't forget dreamy and willing to pay," I teased.

"That's it, we're a thing. We are now a thing. Partners in crime or whatever. Anyways, I've gotta get home, it's late and I have parents who _love_ it when I give them reasons to punish me."

I raised an eyebrow, "You actually get caught?"

"All the time. Of course, they don't actually punish me." She winked, and walked away. "See ya."

I watched her saunter away, and I rubbed my forehead. _What am I getting into?_

I flew back to the warehouse, stopping along the way to save some random civilians from muggings and hostage situations. _This world really is just like the game. At least there's no blast shard bomber._ I dropped in through a window, and nodded at Delsin.

"Where you been?"

"Out." I headed to the fridge for some food, and threw some chipotle in the microwave.

"You see this thing at the mall? They're calling it rabies." He turned up the volume.

"...And this has been reported as an isolated incident. However, the D.U.P. is not allowing anyone inside the mall at this time, and cameras cannot be closer than fifty feet…"

"Sounds like a coverup to me. Was it more infected?"

"Obviously. If it was one of you guys they would say it." Ellie flopped on the couch with a soda, not even sparing me a second glance.

_Okay, seriously, what did I do? Christ, she's treating me like I'm a bloater._ "One of us?"

"You bioterrorists. Maybe if you didn't kill so many, there wouldn't be a problem." She sipped from her soda, nonchalantly.

"Nope, that wouldn't change anything. Cole McGrath and the Beast are ingrained into every part of this nation's memory. Us conduits are to be hated and feared." I sat down next to Ellie, but she scooted further away. _Screw it, I honestly don't care right now._

"Cole who? The Beast?"

I rolled my eyes, "Look, it's simple." I explained exactly what happened, calling upon all the knowledge of the inFamous games, remembering that this timeline came after the good ending of inFamous 2. I made sure to leave out the alternate timeline where Cole became the Beast.

"So, because of two people America has decided that Conduits are K.O.S.?"

Delsin shook his head. "More like K.U.D. Kill upon discovery. Most of us can hide it pretty well, when we're not blowing things up. There are a few, like that Bertrand guy, but still."

Ellie blew air into her bangs. "Whatever. Maybe if the Beast guy hadn't been so crazy…"

I nodded. "Then maybe there wouldn't be a D.U.P." I finished my chipotle and turned the wrapper to shadows.

"You guys have it rough."

"No shit, Cumberbatch."

"Who?" Ellie looked at me quizzically.

"He plays Sherlock- Oh, never mind." I watched the tv blankly, basking in the brain-killing glare of mediocre television.

"I'm bored," Ellie announced. "We should do something."

"Like what? I'm fresh out of ideas." I flashed to the fridge, grabbed a soda, then flashed to the couch.

"You seem to have plenty when you "hang" with Angel." Ellie's eyes flared, and her tone was accusatory.

_Okay, can someone send me the fucking memo? What in the hell is going on?_ Stumped, I just shrugged. "We go out, we eat, we tag, we rob people blind. Is that what you wanna do?"

"No." Ellie crossed her arms and made a _humph_ sound. "I'm glad you two have fun together."

_No way… She's not jealous, is she? Why in the hell would she be jealous?_

"Shots fired," Delsin remarked. "Someone's jealous."

"I am _not_ jealous of someone I don't know!" She made the _humph_ sound again. "Why would I be jealous, anyways?"

_My question exactly. Screw it._ "Ellie, you wanna got to an arcade?" I laughed when her face lit up.

"A real arcade? One with working screens and everything?"

"Wouldn't be much of an arcade if the screens didn't work. You kids have fun, I'm going to destroy a command post." Delsin flashed down the hall.

I pulled myself off the couch. "Say what you will, but he is dedicated. Come on, let's go to the arcade."

Ellie rolled off the couch and dusted her hands on her pants. "Fine."

"Come on! Ugh!" Ellie kicked the Tekken 5 game. "This is rigged, you keep beating me!"

I let my left hand unclench from the joystick. "Well, you probably just need more practice. I used to go to Dave and Buster's every weekend."

She kicked the machine again. "Stupid game!" She looked around. "Does this place have Angel Knives?" My heart almost broke when I heard that.

_Oh my god. _"Sorry, no. I uh, don't think that exists here." I watched her face fall.

"Oh, alright. Well, then what else does it have?" I was still stuck on the Angel Knives comment.

_God, I can't just say nothing._ "Look, I'm sorry. I know how much it would mean to you if they had that game." Ellie shook her head, and her ponytail bobbed.

"You wouldn't know."

"Actually, I do. I'm sorry about…" I trailed off and She whipped around.

"About who?" Her voice was steely cold now.

"About… Riley." Silence reigned in the arcade, and the beeping noises faded into the background. Ellie's face was dark and stormy now.

"How do you know about that?"

"Well, I-"

"How. Do. You. Know. About. Riley? I'm only asking once." I ran my hands through my hair, realizing I shouldn't have said that.

"Well, in my universe, your life is a… video game. I bought it, and well, It happened to include the part with Riley… So I do know about the game, and the bites and everything. I know what you went through with her, with Joel, and by yourself when you were kidnapped by cannibals. I know all about it. I know thing you don't." I almost slapped myself. _Stupid!_

"What do you know that I don't?" She stepped closer, demanding. "Tell me!"

"Well, you know how Joel said the fireflies stopped looking for a cure? They didn't. He lied. He broke into the place and practically massacred them to get at you." Once the words started, there was no stopping. "He killed the surgeons and he shot Marlene. The reason he hates the soldiers is because one of them shot his daughter. Before he met you, he and Tess were hunting a guy who sold all their weapons after stealing them. The tortured him when they caught him to get information. Joel tortured two of the cannibals to find out where you were." I took a deep breath, _Please don't shoot me. Just because I heal doesn't mean it won't hurt._ "Ellie, you okay?" She said nothing, just turned her back to me, and began walking. She walked right out of the arcade.

_Dude, way to fuck up._ I followed her, walking next to her. "Ellie, talk to me."

"Fuck off." Her voice sounded small and hurt.

"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"I said GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" She smashed an elbow into my face, and I felt my nose break. She sprinted away as I held my nose so it would heal properly.

_Yeah, good idea. Tell her all the shit. You Idiot._ I sprinted after her as soon as I could, "ELLIE!" She had some ground on me, so I flashed ahead, not caring who saw. She made a sharp turn into an alley, and so I flashed ahead of her. "Stop!"

"Fuck you!" She tried to bowl me over, but I used some of the enhanced strength I had to stop her, pinning her arms.

"You need to calm the fuck down-"

"I FUCKING HATE YOU! I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FUCKING FACE AGAIN!" She jerked free and took off running in the opposite direction. I didn't have the heart to chase her. I just stood there, frozen until I heard the telltale sirens broadcasting the approach of the D.U.P. At that point I launched myself into the air, flying far, far away.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Mistakes

_Well, that was absolutely stupid._ I landed on a roof somewhere, and sat up against the roof access. _Damn it! What was I doing? Telling her I knew all about her. Actually, that makes me sound like a creep. Ew. _Shaking my head, I watched the sky gradually darken, until it was pitch black, except for the spotlights, and the seemingly endless patrols of D.U.P. trucks._ Shit, I should go find her. No need for her to wander the streets at night, or something like that._ I coughed, and stretched out. _Or I could just stay here. It's not exactly uncomfortable._ As I pondered what to do, the door swung open and I froze. _Maybe I am cursed with bad luck._ I sunk into the shadows, and watched as an office-looking dude lit up a cigarette, and speed dialed someone. Interested, I merged with his shadow, to better hear him.

"Yes, I know. The Conduit situation is out of control. First the Empire event, then the destruction in New Marais. And if that wasn't enough, the bastards have the gall to come here." Pausing, he cocked his ear. "No sir, that's not possible. The RFI can only be triggered by a conduit who has similar powers to Cole McGrath. And not a single one has surfaced. Not to mention, they would also have to absorb blast cores." He stopped again. "We have blast cores, yes. But they are expensive to manufacture, and kill Conduits with a lower level abilities, or Conduits who cannot handle the stress. We'd need someone who meets a very specific set of requirements." He dropped his cigarette, crushed it, and lit a new one. "The one who's been attacking us nonstop. Yes, the twenty-ish conduit. He's been seen using more than one power. Yes, but he'd never do it. And we could never catch him. He's too fast. We could attempt to capture the others he's been seen with. What about the one that uses shadows? What do we know about him?" My heart pounded in my chest, and I hoped he couldn't hear me breathing.

"Next to nothing, Great. You're asking me to deliver something that is nearly impossible." He shook his head. "We'll talk again." Hanging up, he headed back towards the door.

_Blast cores? They manufacture those? Holy crap, I'm onto something here._ I left his shadow and flowed down the side of the building. When I reached the ground, I materialized and started running, as fast as I could. _No good using my powers now. _If I forgot to mention it, I leave a slight trail of smoke when I move within shadows, which normally wouldn't be very visible. If anything, it looked like heat distortion. But I wasn't taking any chances, not after what I heard. _This is way too good to be true. _I called Delsin, willing him to pick up.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Dude. I found out that someone's hiding blast cores."

"Blast what?"

I rolled my eyes, and slowed to a walk, avoiding the patrols of dupes enforcing the curfew merging with shadows, and hoping they wouldn't see me. "Blast cores. They up our abilities and give us new powers."

"I get new powers every time I touch someone."

"Fair enough, but your old powers would get a major boost. Plus, you'd be stealing from the dupes."

His voice brightened, "Sweet. Where are they hiding them?"

"Don't know, I just got lucky and overheard a conversation. Look, I'll text you the building address, I guess we could stake it out later or something." I tapped rapidly on my phone, and sent the address.

"Hmm, Okay. I didn't think anything was in that building. Are you sure?"

"Well, maybe, I don't know. I am running at night."

"Well, it's worth a shot. Hey, Ellie seemed pretty pissed when she stormed back in here. I thought you were going to an arcade?"

"Well, let's say it ended badly." I rubbed my forehead and slipped past truck after truck. "Okay, I'm coming back. How pissed is she?"

"When I asked her that she chucked a knife at my face."

"Oh."

"Yeah. See ya." The call ended, _Great. Maybe I should crash at Angel's._ Sighing, I called her up.

She answered the phone with a groan. "Dude, it's like twelve at night. Why are you calling me?"

"Can I sleep at your house?"

"What? Dude, why are you asking this _now_? It's too late to even sleep at this point." I heard an ear-shaking yawn.

"I'm sort of tired? Maybe? Look, is this a yes or a no?"

"Yes. You can come. Do you know where I live?"

I couldn't stop myself from smirking in the darkness. "No, I'm not a creep. Text me the address."

"Yeah, sure. Get here quick, before I fall asleep and forget to let you in."

"Sure thing." Following the infallible directions of google maps, I made my way across the city, and eventually found myself behind a two-story house. I hauled myself up onto a balcony, and knocked on the window.

Angel threw it open, her eyes red. "Get in here before I shut it on you."

"Thanks." I clambered in, and she gently let it close. "Nice bedhead."

"It's one in the fucking morning, jackass. I don't wake up looking like a goddess."

I raised my hands. "Jeez, someone's cranky."

"Shut the hell up and go to sleep." She jabbed a finger at a closet. "It's walk-in, you can sleep on the floor. Take these," She tossed a sheet and pillow at me.

"What, no goodnight kiss?" I set up my makeshift bed type thing. _Well, it's better than outside._

"Not at one in the morning. Now seriously, go to sleep. We have to wake up tomorrow."

I laid down, resting my head on the pillow. "Morning, Angel."

"Screw you."

I woke up and checked my phone, which was suffering from low battery. _Ten o'clock. Well, at least I'm feeling rested. That's like ten hours of sleep._ I stretched and sniffed my pitts, _Okay, shower needed. And a change of clothes. And food._ Rubbing my eyes, I slid under the door, then reemerged in Angel's room. Plugging my phone in after the tenth try, I searched for the bathroom in her house. I found it after a while, and took a long and indulgent shower, washing away the filth of the past couple days. Drying off, I realized I had no clean clothes. _Great. I knew I should have stopped by the safehouse._ Wrapping a towel around my waist, I poked around the house, sticking to shadows. Entering one room, I found some clothes that fit me. I helped myself to black jeans and a black shirt. _Thank god she apparently has a brother._ _Wait, where is everyone?_ I hadn't seen anyone while exploring, and I'd been in every room. _Maybe church? Angel doesn't seem like she's particularly religious, but who am I to judge? Meh. _ I grabbed my clothes from the bathroom and slipped back into my hoodie. A few minutes later I was playing Dead Rising 3 on the console in her room, which I found under a pile of discarded clothes. _So she's rich-ish? Maybe her family is just well to-do. I mean, her parents own a lot of gucci shoes, and tons of jewelry. Hmm, maybe Angel's the black sheep?_ I pondered this while slaying zombies with something I wished was real, a fully auto shotgun and chainsaw duct-taped together called the Beast. _Oh well, a guy can dream._ My phone buzzed, and I accepted the call.

"Dude, you're finally awake."

"Morning again. Yeah, I just got up." I paused the game quickly, and laid down on her bed. "I love this place. Do I ever have to leave?"

She chuckled. "You're welcome to explain to my family why you need to stay here, and that you slept in my closet last night."

"Can't you just use your mad Jedi skills?"

"Ha-ha. No, I actually try not to use them on my family."

"Speaking of which, where are you?" I munched on a bagel, freshly stolen from the fridge.

"Church."

"You go to church?" I furiously spammed the right trigger, clearing a crowd of zombies.

"I'm only named Angel. Besides, we're heading home in a few minutes. Stay here or begone, I guess. You can think of something to say, right? Like, you broke in?"

A plan began to from in my mind. "Oh yeah. I've got an idea or two."

"...And my dad was killed by… Well, I don't wanna talk about it. My mom's never been around, so after I finished school I drifted from city to city for about a year." I had Mr. and Mrs. Santos in tears. "I'm sorry for breaking in, but I couldn't pass it up. I haven't been in a house in forever, and yours just looked so...inviting."

"You can stay as long as you want," Jorge said. "I promise you, young man, we will help you get back on your feet."

I sniffed dramatically. "Thank you. You don't understand how much this means to me." _How in the hell are some people so gullible?_

Angel hid her amusement in her eyes, and her brother, Johnny, just looked vaguely impressed. "You've lived on the streets for a year?"

I shook my head, and looked at the table. "Yeah."

"Awesome. How'd you do it?"

I glanced at the knives which were strapped to my belt. _Oh my god, it's working._

"Johnny, don't be rude." Petra Santos said, shaking her head and wiping her eyes.

"Just asking." He shrugged and went upstairs.

"Are you sure you don't mind the closet? We have a guest room," Jorge pointed out. I shook my head.

"When I was a kid, I used to sleep there all the time. It reminds me of… well, my dad. Plus, I don't want to impose…"

"You would not be imposing. In fact, you're moving in right now. Welcome to the family," And I found myself wrapped in a bear hug. I let my arms hang at my sides, but still muttered, "Thanks."

A few minutes later, I was playing Dead Rising 3 again with Angel. "I can't believe that worked." She rolled her violet eyes.

"Yeah, I know. Seriously, how did you convince them like that?"

"Acting prodigy, I guess. Now get in the car, the mission's on the other side of the city." She complied, and as I drove our characters across the city of Los Perdidos, I glanced over at her. "So, how are do your parents feel about Conduits?"

"Never talk about them, ever. I guess we're to be shunned." She shrugged. "Not like they know, anyways."

"Hey, stick in there, yeah?" I punched her shoulder, a gesture of friendship.

"Yeah. Car's on fire, bail." We jumped out of the car, and it exploded violently. I shook the hair from my face, "So I'm staying here now? What does that make us?"

She paused the game, and gave me a searching look. "It makes us very, very careful." She leaned over kissed me. I admit it, it felt pretty good. And I unpaused the game in the middle of the kiss, which was my evil plan.

"Hey!" The screen commanded her attention again, and she whipped around to face it. "You're gonna get me killed!"

"You wanted to run into a horde of zombies. It's an occupational hazard." I tapped B repeatedly to get a zombie off me. "Now can we reach the cars? I don't want to die with all this cool stuff." She stuck her tongue out at me, and cleared a path with her fire scythe.

"There, happy?"

"Only a little bit. Ooh, I can make the junk car." I did so, and entered the vehicle. "come on, let's go."

"You're bossy."

"Says the one who can control people with her powers."

"That doesn't make me bossy, just misunderstood." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, "Watch out for the roadblock."

"I see it. So, are we going to do mundane things now like play video games? Because honestly, this is starting to bore me." I paused the game and tossed my controler.

"So you do crazy things because you're...bored."

"Yes."

She laughed, "And that's why you touched the crack in your wall?"

"Yep." I opened the window. "You coming?"

"You do realize we can use the front door now." She turned off the Xbox.

"Window's more fun, come on." I brushed my hair to one side, and gave her a grin.

"No. We're telling my parents that we intend to go shopping, and then we'll go." She pulled me down from the window, and I pouted.

"So you're only fun outside your home?"

"Ha-ha. Let's see how fun you are when your parents are practically Nuns."

I rolled my eyes, but said nothing, and in a minute we were on our way. "So why don't you use your powers on family?"

She glanced at me. "Would you shoot Delsin?"

I smirked. "You really need to pick a better example. I'd call him an acquaintance, not family."

"Would you shoot your mom, then?"

"Which one? My biological mother or my-"

"Shut the hell up, you know what I mean." She punched me in the stomach, grinning. "Why you gotta be so difficult?"

"Becuz I'm thug, yo." Angel burst out laughing, and leaned on a railing, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.

"You are definitely not thuggin, dude. You're not even close." She threw an arm around my shoulders. "You are like the furthest thing from thuggin I can imagine."

"Hey, I fight the police." I assumed an offended air.

She laughed again, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You are so, so far from thuggin that a new word is needed to express your not-thugness."

"Oh yeah, really?" I flexed, "How about now?"

"Your nonexistent thug factor just went down." Angel rolled her eyes.

"Screw you. I cover walls in graffiti, run around blowing up the D.U.P. and I'm a wanted rebel. How does that not make me thug?"

"You can't fake thug. Thug just is." ((By the way, this is most definitely modeled after a real conversation I had, once.))

"Well, I'm thug enough for you." I felt confident enough to lean over and kiss her, and she agreeably kissed back. After a while, we broke apart.

"You're still not thug. And this isn't the mall."

"The mall is boring. Do you think you could get us inside there?" I pointed to the building where I had run from last night.

"Why can't you just do it?" She placed a hand on her hip. "You're the one with the powers that make things go boom."

"Too risky…" I quickly explained about the blast cores. "Plus, you'd get a power boost too. If we tried, I bet we could even swap powers."

"Hmmm, your offer is tempting… But wouldn't there be a ton of dupes in there?"

"And that's where Delsin comes in. He'll be blowing things up, so they'll send their units over. Hopefully." I speed dialed him. "Yo, D. can you blow some stuff up?"

"What type of stuff?"

"Their communications tower, maybe?" I texted him a picture I had sent earlier.

"Okay, I'll give it a shot. Why, what're you doing?"

"Blast cores. You don't really need to blow it up, just distract them so I can move in and steal a few."

"Okay, deal. You go ahead and start robbing them blind."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I'll rob em blind ((Call me Sly Cooper))

"We come here all the time, you can let us in."

"I can let you in…" The guard let us in past the gate, and I would've laughed, if it wasn't for the peril we were in.

"After this, go back and take a nap. Oh, and forget all about us."

He nodded, and wandered back the the station, looking dazed and confused. That is, until he fell asleep.

"Nice." I took Angel's hand, and made us into shadows, silently merging with the shadow of a truck.

"Why didn't you do that before?"

"Because I wanted to see if you could do that. And, I make the shadow smoke when I merge with it, which would attract attention." I moved us to a shadow under the door, and we materialized inside. "Okay, work your magic on anyone we come across." Angel saluted me; "Sir yes sir." We continued down the corridor until we found another guard, who raised his rifle at us. "You can't be in here-"

"Put down your gun." Angel smiled sweetly.

Struggling, the soldier put down his gun, and stood there, shaking.

"Where are the blast cores?"

"The...the what?" Angel looked at me and shrugged. "Do you think he knows anything?"

"Probably not. You wanna press harder, just in case?"

"Sure." She returned her attention to the poor guard. "The blast cores. Tell me where they are, now." He shook even harder, and his speech began to slur. "I-I don't know… go to hell you freak-" I raised my palm and blasted him in the forehead, then dragged his body into the shadows and left it there.  
"Okay, so we need to find people who know things. Are there any offices here?"

Angel rolled her eyes. "I could have asked the guy, but you killed him."

"Oh." I blushed, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm not used to all this subtle stuff." We wandered around, and I killed a few more people, before we found what we were looking for. Some dude with a labcoat, walking with purpose. He bumped into me, and before he could say anything Angel had him under her spell.

"Now, do you know anything about the blast cores?"

"I just came from working with them… Wait, why should I tell you-"

"Where?" Angel pressed him, and beads of sweat began to form on his brow.

"I can't…" his right arm slowly lifted up, and pointed.

"Good. Now, take us." She glanced at me, "Don't kill this one."

"No promises." I prodded the scientist with my knife. "Get moving." He did, and his feet dragged. He kept shaking his head, like he was trying to clear it, but a couple prods with the knife and Angel's reassurances did the trick. We reached a thick metal door, and he stopped. "They're in there."

I smiled. "Good, good. Go on and open it."

He turned to me. "Why are you doing this? Why don't you just surrender yourselves-"

Angel shushed him, "Open it." Lo and behold, his arm raised and swiped a card. The door clunked open, and I raised my knife to stab Johnson, as his nametag proclaimed. Angel shook her head. "Johnson, you're going to go to the bathroom. And then you're going to forget about us."

He nodded, but I shook my head. "Let me kill him. It's faster, and safer."

"Look at him, he's terrified. Do you have a family?"

"Yes…" He began to shake even more, and I sighed. "Johnson, I'm gonna let you go. In fact, I'm going to trust you to not say anything about us." I looked at Angel. "Don't mindwipe him. Let him be." I clapped Johnson on the back. "You just reminded me I'm human too. Now go, get out of here. We've got some blast cores to steal."

Awestruck, Johnson edged away from us, then walked down the hall like nothing happened.

Angel gave me a look. "Really? Now we're getting arrested for sure." Instead of answering Angel, I opened the door, and immediately tossed my knives at the two soldiers in my range of sight. Two perfect hits, and they went down.

_Okay, it's got to be my powers. There's no way I'm that accurate with knives._ Crouching behind the railing, I peeked around, to see if anyone had noticed. _Nope. Okay, this is a little to easy._ I turned to Angel. "Stay here, don't get shot." I melted into shadows and slid across the floor, heading towards the labcoats.

"Have you seen Johnson?"

"No. What could be taking him so long?" I saw them, the cores, just sitting on the table, asking to be taken. _Four of them, sweet._ I materialized, and tapped a scientist on the shoulder.

"Yes, what is it?" He turned around and met my fist, smashing into his face and knocking him out. I gave the other scientist, someone named Rose, a huge grin. "I'll be taking these. Oh, and by the way." I punched her too, and was pretty sure I heard bones crack. _Alright, let's get the hell out in style._ I shook up a can of spray paint, and sprayed all over the white, sterile room, _You are not in control._ Quickly, I shoved all four cores into my bag, and nodded at Angel, flying over to her. "Come on, let's go."

"You're freaking crazy." She took my hand, and we melted into shadows.

_A man watched the security camera feed from the laboratory, then dialed a number on his nondescript office phone. "Yes sir. Yes, they took the bait, although it wasn't who we expected. It was the shadow kid, but he brought a girl with him instead of the other one. Should we intercept?" He listened to a long, detailed explanation on the phone, and nodded. "Yes sir. Take them alive." _

As we drifted outside, spotlights lit up the courtyard. In the middle of the day. _What the hell? Oh, wait. Security cameras. Oh, that's not good. _The gates slammed shut, and lights were shone on them, too. Trucks rolled up, and endless dupes piled out, aiming their guns directly at us. _Really not good._

"Raven?" Angel hissed. " Was this part of your plan?"

"Admittedly, nope." I would have facepalmed, except for guns were being pointed at me. "We'll take you alive." The man who I had listened to on the roof strolled out, holding a megaphone. "Just show us where you are, and we won't hurt you."

"They don't know where we are. Raven, get us out of here." Angel squeezed my hand. "My powers don't blow things up, remember?"

"I know that. Working on a plan here…" _I've got about ten seconds to come up with something. _My eyes flicked around, seeing no shadows. _Except for the ones under the trucks… _ Suddenly all the radios went off, in one unified, panicked sound.

"We're being attacked at the com tower! Send backup, send backup! It's the bioterrorist, Delsin- AGH!" The transmission went crackly, then someone picked up the radio.

"You. Are. Not. In. Control." The transmission ended.

The man with the megaphone looked slightly disappointed. "Oh, well." He waved at the troopers. "Go on, get to the communication tower. Stop him, before he blows it all up." He glanced around, still unsure of where we were. "This isn't over." The trucks were filled and drove off, sirens flashing. I managed to hide us under one until we were a safe distance away, and then hopped us over to a lamppost's shadow.

"That was too close. You're not asking me to do that again." Angel leaned up on the post, breathing heavy.

"I forgot about cameras, to be honest. And I left my knives there, too. Damn." I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans, leaving stains. "But it didn't take too long. We should head to the warehouse and fire these cores up."

Angel nodded, but she still looked a little shaken. "Okay, how are we getting there?"

"I could… No, we should walk."

"That's like ten miles."

"Deal with it. I'm not gonna use my powers unless I have to." I texted Delsin, _Regroup at warehouse._ "We'd better start. It's only like 11:30 anyways. We're hardly going to be late getting home." I started off, waiting for her to follow.

She sighed and trudged after me. "Sometimes I hate you."

"No you don't."

"Yeah, I do."

I opened the door to the warehouse, and found Delsin devouring chicken wings. "Sup bro?" He wiped his fingers on a napkin, and burned the napkin to ashes. "Did you get 'em?"

"Yeah, we got four." I held up my bag. "One for each of us, and then one to swap powers with."

"Sweet. So, how does it work?" He reached out, and took a blast core, handling it reverently.

"You channel your powers into it, I think."

"Cool. Keep watch, would you?" He stood up, and focused his powers into the core. Purple light began to pulse, and the blast core dissolved into energy, flowing into Delsin's veins.

"Grah!" His arms flung outward, and a blast of ash pushed me back. he collapsed onto the floor, unconscious.

"Is that going to happen to me too?" Angel nudged Delsin with her foot.

"Yeah. To all of us. But it's totally worth it." I sat on the couch, which was a little charred. "You should go too. It's going to take a few hours for him to wake up, and we have to be home, remember?"

She sighed, and took a core from the bag. "So how do _I _get it started?"

"I don't know, think at it."

She laughed, and grasped the core firmly. "Okay, here goes…" She focused, and the core sparked, then burst into a brilliant cascade of deep purple, matching her eyes. The light flowed into her head, and her eyes flared violet. Noiselessly, she collapsed on the ground. I shrugged and started eating the leftover chicken wings. _All that stealth made me hungry._

"I feel like hell." Delsin pushed himself off the floor, groaning. "What did you do to me?"

"You did it to yourself. Feel like you can do anything new?"

He looked himself over, "Yeah, actually. I do." He opened his palms, and fire flared up. He aimed his palm, and multiple bolts of ash and flame shot at the same time, knocking over various objects in the room. "It's like a shotgun… Scattershot. Sweet."

"I'm never doing that again." Angel rolled over onto her back with a grimace on her face. "Seriously, I feel like a train ran over me, then backed up and did it again." I got off the couch and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, you can get up." I hauled her to her feet and she let go of my arm, standing up shakily.

"Okay, how do I know what to do?"

"I don't know, you usually just do it." She flipped me off.  
"Really? I thought you knew everything. Ugh, this sucks!" As she swung her hand in frustration, she knocked over the table. Which she was a good ten feet away from. We turned and looked at the fallen table.

"Try moving it again."

She nodded at me, and narrowed her eyes at the table. Suddenly, they glowed purple and the table flew across the room and smashed into the wall.

"So you've got telekinesis. Nice."

Angel fixed her hair, "Yep. Imagine all the things we can torment my brother with."

I grinned and took my blast core. "Wait for me." As I pumped shadows into it, it grew brighter and brighter, then exploded and bathed me in its purple glow. I collapsed, and was vaguely aware of someone catching me.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was laying on the couch. "Did someone move me? You're not supposed to do that."

"Well I wasn't going to leave you on the floor." Angel brushed her hair back and pulled down her hood, looking at me like I was crazy..

"You probably messed it up. Now I won't get any cool powers." I rolled off the couch and hit the floor. "Actually, I think I did get something new." I rubbed my forehead, and looked over at the remains of the table. I extended my hand. Shadows burst out, grabbed the table, and pulled it towards me. My left hand swung forward instinctively and I bashed the table, reducing it to shadows. "Sweet. Now we need to all use the last one, and see if we can trade powers. Everyone put a hand on it."

"This is going to end badly." Angel grabbed one end of the core.

"Badly as in good." Delsin grabbed the other end, and I held the middle.

"Okay, ready? One, two, three, GO TEAM!" They just looked at me.

"Really?"

"Screw you, just do it." We all pumped our powers into the core, and the light flared white. I felt myself getting stronger, instead of weaker, and the light flowed into my veins. "Hey, I'm not doing too bad."

"Neither am I." Angel shook her head. "I'm fine."

Delsin shrugged. "Oh well. maybe it didn't work. At least we're all still conscious."

((I'm going to wait to write a bit until I beat the game, so I have some Idea of what the story is.))


End file.
